Climbing Profile and Press — neilgresham.com

First ascent of Sabotage 8c+, Malham Cove in 2016. Photo: Ian Parnell

Climbing Profile

Neil Gresham is one of the UK's most well-known all round climbers, who has performed at a high level in every discipline from Deep Water Soloing to sport, ice and trad for over two decades. In the UK he made the third ascent of Indian Face E9 6c in 1995, and the second ascent of Equilibrium E10 7a in 2001, both which were widely regarded as the most difficult of their genre in the world at the time. His Lake District trad route, Lexicon E11 7a, climbed in 2021 is regarded as one of the best and hardest in the UK and his Pembroke Deep Water Solo, Olympiad 8b, featured on BBC Breakfast Time in 2012 is Britain’s hardest. He has also put up hard new sport routes on some of the UK’s premiere limestone crags, such as Sabotage 8c+ at Malham Cove, which appeared on BBC Countryfile in 2016. Neil is well known for his pioneering first ascents all over the world in countries such as Brazil, Mongolia, Cuba, Vietnam, China, Iceland, Kalymnos, Oman, Norway and Nepal. He has also been at the forefront of the development of coaching and writes regular training articles for UKC.com and Rock & Ice magazine.